A Halted Execution and the Future of the Death Penalty

Richard Glossip stands at the center of the Supreme Court's dilemma.

The U.S. Supreme Court stands in Washington, D.C., U.S.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Bloomberg

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By Tom Randall

September 30, 2015 at 10:31 PM UTC

Updated on

October 1, 2015 at 3:21 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

It's been a big week for the U.S. death penalty. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said capital punishment may soon come to an end. The ACLU's legal director, Steven R. Shapiro, agreed. Pope Francis brought to the U.S. his appeal for "the global abolition of the death penalty."

And stuck in the middle of it all: Richard Glossip, a man sentenced to death for his alleged role in a murder he did not commit.1443653197692 Many have contested Glossip's guilt. Others argued against the sentence he received, and his challenge to a flawed method of lethal injection rose to the Supreme Court this year. Glossip lost that case and was scheduled to die on Wednesday. The execution was postponed at the last minute by Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin in order to investigate the drugs.